Feast of St. Bartholomew, Apostle

Amen I say to you, follow me and you will see greater things than this. The Church remembers today the apostle St. Bartholomew (also known as Nathaniel). He was from Cana in Galilee and was brought to Jesus by his friend, the apostle Philip. According to tradition, St. Bartholomew preached the Gospel in India where he ultimately died a martyr. Bartholomew is among those apostles who are mentioned just a couple of times in the entire gospel corpus. And while there might be a scarcity of information even for a five-minute homily on him, I think the mere fact that he became an apostle suffices. For unlike such apostles as Paul or Peter, Bartholomew and the other apostles who “remained in the background” are celebrated, not necessarily for the “great” feats that they accomplished as apostles, but rather for their saying YES when Jesus beckoned at them. Our celebration of Bartholomew, therefore, hinges on the fact that he responded to the call and became a partner in ministry with Jesus. We are celebrating his being part of the group that risked all in order to follow Jesus. They did not know what this new way was all about, but they believed. As a matter of fact, Bartholomew was at first skeptical when he was introduced to Jesus. But after meeting Jesus, he came to believe in him and in his mission. It is his belief, his willingness to risk it all, that we celebrate today. He looked at Jesus, and was drawn by what he saw, and in the process, he became his friend. It is this friendship of his with Jesus that we celebrate today. As a friend of Jesus, Bartholomew knew that the responsibility had been passed to him to introduce Jesus to the world just as his friend Philip had done. He understood that it was his responsibility, not just as an apostle but as a friend of Jesus (cf. John 15:14-15: ‘I call you friends because I have made known to you the secrets of the kingdom’) to share the Jesus’ story with others. He did this because it was a story worth sharing, a story that was meant to change the face of the world, just as it had changed his.